We petitioned Nigeria's Federal High Court last May to review the decision of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to grant refugee status to former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is a fugitive from war crimes charges brought by a United Nations-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone. We are two of Taylor's many victims.
Seven years ago, we were young Nigerian businessmen trading in electronic hardware and medical equipment on Africa's West coast. We procured our supplies in Nigeria and exported them to Liberia and Sierra Leone. In the summer of 1997, David was in Monrovia when Charles Taylor was inaugurated President of Liberia following an eight-year civil war. One year later, the UN and the Economic Community of West African States deployed soldiers as peacekeepers in neighboring Sierra Leone to guarantee a ceasefire in that country's near-decade-long conflict, instigated by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front.
In the fall of 1998, we traveled separately on business trips to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. On previous visits, we had heard reports of atrocities committed by RUF rebels, including amputations, rapes, and mutilations of civilians in the countryside. But the presence of the international community reassured us that it was safe to do business in the country. Both our home government and friends in Sierra Leone agreed. We planned to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays in Freetown before returning to Nigeria early in 1999.
Then our plans went awry. Shortly before Christmas, rumors of an impending rebel assault began to filter into Sierra Leone's capital. First a trickle, then a deluge of internally displaced persons arrived. We tried to change our flights and return to Nigeria, but there were no flights available. On January 6, the rebels overran the home where we were staying in Freetown. We were among nine Nigerians staying there.
The rebels - over one hundred of them, many young teenagers - surrounded our building, set it on fire, and ordered all Nigerians to come out. Their commander, who spoke with a distinct Liberian accent, called himself Captain Goldteeth. When we tried to escape, the rebels captured us. Captain Goldteeth had us brought to a bus terminal next to our residence, where more than 80 other captives were assembled. He said that he had instructions - from the Executive Mansion in Monrovia - to send a message to Nigeria, the leading troop contributor and financier of the regional peacekeeping force, ECOMOG.
Captain Goldteeth asked the "cut-hand-cut-foot man" to separate Nigerians from the others. Then they began to amputate us. Their first victim was Emmanuel's younger brother, Benedict Egbuna. They cut off his hands from beneath the elbow. He bled to death in front of his pregnant wife, Zainab, and us before he was dumped behind the house. Many of our best friends were also mutilated and killed.
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Next it was our turn. The machete cut through Emmanuel's flesh and bones but did not entirely sever them. With hands dangling from his arms, the rebels dumped Emmanuel in the cemetery. They then cut off David's arms before setting him ablaze.
Neither of us knows how we survived this ordeal. Benedict Egbuna's five-year old son, Benedict Jr., born five months after the slaughter of his father, is a source of comfort to both of us and to all who knew his father. Someday, when he grows up, Benedict Jr. will look to us to reconstruct the memories of the father he will never know.
At a later point, Benedict will almost certainly also ask us what happened to those responsible for his father's killing. What shall we tell him? We have a duty to seek justice for the victims of Charles Taylor's crimes. Refugee status is a humanitarian shelter. Nigeria must not let it be used as a tyrant's shield.
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Iran’s mass ballistic missile and drone attack on Israel last week raised anew the specter of a widening Middle East war that draws in Iran and its proxies, as well as Western countries like the United States. The urgent need to defuse tensions – starting by ending Israel’s war in Gaza and pursuing a lasting political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – is obvious, but can it be done?
The most successful development stories almost always involve major shifts in the sources of economic growth, which in turn allow economies to reinvent themselves out of necessity or by design. In China, the interplay of mounting external pressures, lagging household consumption, and falling productivity will increasingly shape China’s policy choices in the years ahead.
explains why the Chinese authorities should switch to a consumption- and productivity-led growth model.
Designing a progressive anti-violence strategy that delivers the safety for which a huge share of Latin Americans crave is perhaps the most difficult challenge facing many of the region’s governments. But it is also the most important.
urge the region’s progressives to start treating security as an essential component of social protection.
We petitioned Nigeria's Federal High Court last May to review the decision of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to grant refugee status to former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is a fugitive from war crimes charges brought by a United Nations-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone. We are two of Taylor's many victims.
Seven years ago, we were young Nigerian businessmen trading in electronic hardware and medical equipment on Africa's West coast. We procured our supplies in Nigeria and exported them to Liberia and Sierra Leone. In the summer of 1997, David was in Monrovia when Charles Taylor was inaugurated President of Liberia following an eight-year civil war. One year later, the UN and the Economic Community of West African States deployed soldiers as peacekeepers in neighboring Sierra Leone to guarantee a ceasefire in that country's near-decade-long conflict, instigated by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front.
In the fall of 1998, we traveled separately on business trips to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. On previous visits, we had heard reports of atrocities committed by RUF rebels, including amputations, rapes, and mutilations of civilians in the countryside. But the presence of the international community reassured us that it was safe to do business in the country. Both our home government and friends in Sierra Leone agreed. We planned to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays in Freetown before returning to Nigeria early in 1999.
Then our plans went awry. Shortly before Christmas, rumors of an impending rebel assault began to filter into Sierra Leone's capital. First a trickle, then a deluge of internally displaced persons arrived. We tried to change our flights and return to Nigeria, but there were no flights available. On January 6, the rebels overran the home where we were staying in Freetown. We were among nine Nigerians staying there.
The rebels - over one hundred of them, many young teenagers - surrounded our building, set it on fire, and ordered all Nigerians to come out. Their commander, who spoke with a distinct Liberian accent, called himself Captain Goldteeth. When we tried to escape, the rebels captured us. Captain Goldteeth had us brought to a bus terminal next to our residence, where more than 80 other captives were assembled. He said that he had instructions - from the Executive Mansion in Monrovia - to send a message to Nigeria, the leading troop contributor and financier of the regional peacekeeping force, ECOMOG.
Captain Goldteeth asked the "cut-hand-cut-foot man" to separate Nigerians from the others. Then they began to amputate us. Their first victim was Emmanuel's younger brother, Benedict Egbuna. They cut off his hands from beneath the elbow. He bled to death in front of his pregnant wife, Zainab, and us before he was dumped behind the house. Many of our best friends were also mutilated and killed.
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Access every new PS commentary, our entire On Point suite of subscriber-exclusive content – including Longer Reads, Insider Interviews, Big Picture/Big Question, and Say More – and the full PS archive.
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Next it was our turn. The machete cut through Emmanuel's flesh and bones but did not entirely sever them. With hands dangling from his arms, the rebels dumped Emmanuel in the cemetery. They then cut off David's arms before setting him ablaze.
Neither of us knows how we survived this ordeal. Benedict Egbuna's five-year old son, Benedict Jr., born five months after the slaughter of his father, is a source of comfort to both of us and to all who knew his father. Someday, when he grows up, Benedict Jr. will look to us to reconstruct the memories of the father he will never know.
At a later point, Benedict will almost certainly also ask us what happened to those responsible for his father's killing. What shall we tell him? We have a duty to seek justice for the victims of Charles Taylor's crimes. Refugee status is a humanitarian shelter. Nigeria must not let it be used as a tyrant's shield.